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In the Course of 21 seasons the New Yankee Workshop with Norm Abrams, having 235 projects and 925 episodes has introduced more people to the craft of woodworking than anyone else on the planet. The show ran from 1989 until 2009, but sadly their are no more being made.

So if your local stations have stopped airing reruns of the show, and you still need your weekly hit of Norm? well help is at hand, the New Yankee Online Website is airing an old episode of the show each week.

As well as this fully featured DVD's of all New Yankee Project are available to buy on the site as well as the appropriate measured drawings.

For those (if any) who have never seen Norm, here is a short youtube clip, where he shows us around the Studley tool chest.

John McAbery lives and works on a remote area of the California coast in a small handmade cabin without electricity or telephone. His workspace is a small table with a vise attached, a few hand tools and nothing else.
John uses naturally fallen California bay laurel.

The blocks of wood he starts with can weigh as much as 100 pounds, yet his finished sculptures weigh as little as 4 ounces. His partner Gretchen Bunker helps with the design and finishing of the work.

To begin the process, John creates with ribbons, clay or foil a three dimensional model of the sculpture. He also draws inspiration form seaweed and shells found on the beach.

His designs are drawn on both sides of the block and the carving begins. He uses keyhole saws to rough out his piece. Then he continues to refine the sculpture using smaller keyhole saws, gouges and microplanes.

After days of cutting and shaping, a rough sculpture finally emerges from the block. John uses sandpaper in successive grits to continue refining every twist and curve. The piece is finish sanded down to 600 grit, then polished with a blend of beeswax and carnauba.

His Site contains a short biography, photos of sculptures in progress and portfolios of his current and past work.

You Tube has come to define the era of online video, filled with lots of great content for all us woodworkers. So enjoy one of its most popular and fun woodworking videos of all time. With 863,353 views the Impossible nail-through-wood trick from Steve Ramsey's Woodworking for Mere Mortals channel certainly leads the way.